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29,1982
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Texas A&M
The Battalion Sports
November 29, 1982 Page 9
A- A
Thanksgiving Classic ’82
Losses don’t affect Sherrill
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by John P. Lopez
Battalion Staff
Nobody said it was going to be
asy.
Whenjackie Sherrill opted to
ake over the reigns of the l exas
Iggies instead of staying at na-
lonal contender Pittsburgh, a
at of Texas A&M supporters
tarted to talk cotton.
But after early-season opttm-
m became Thanksgiving-day
tality at the hands of the Texas
longhorns, Sherrill started to
jfalk turkey.
“When you’re number one or
umber two in the nation, peo-
le think you’re a hell of a
loach,” Sherrill said after the
Iggies had been def eated 53- f (i
a Austin.
I “But when you go through a
bson like this, you just work
Jarder. 1 don’t have any prob-
cms with losing a football
|ame. When the time comes
that I have a problem, I’ll do
something else. I can always
write.”
Senior quarterback Gary Ku-
biak agreed with Sherrill, saying
the disappointing season should
serve as a motivating factor for
the Aggies.
“Thre’s no time to look back,”
Kubiak said. “We’ve got a good
program, all we need is for it to
get back on the right track.
Coach Sherrill is a great man
and he’s meant a lot to me in just
one year.
“We had some fine football
players and we lost three of
them in the first three games.
That’s a tough road to hold, but
Sherrill’s a class man and I think
he’s taking it as a challenge. He’s
going to build it back up.”
Kubiak, slated to play in at
least two college all-star games
later this year, took more than
his share of lumps against the
Longhorns. The Horns sacked
Kubiak five times, pressured
him numerous other times, and
knocked him down after he had
already thrown the ball on sever
al other occasions.
That pressure kept Kubiak
from having the kind of day nec-
cessary for the Aggies to win.
Kubiak completed only 10 of 34
passes for 128 yards. That gives
the senior from St. Pius High
School in Houston a total of
1,948 yards passing for the 1982
season — only 52 yards shy of a
2,000-yard season.
Junior defensive tackle Keith
Guthrie said: “We’re not going
to be down all the time. Sooner
or later things are going to turn
our way. I’m just glad I have one
more year with Coach Sherrill
because we can be a great team.”
With the Aggies f inishing at a
not-so-great 5-0, there are ob
viously some holes to fill before
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f eyes the Aggie-Longhorn clash with
Texas A&M becomes a peren
nial football power, but Sherrill
said that despite some weak-
neses, the groundwork for a
good team has already been
layed.
“The three inside people
(center Matt Darwin and guards
Greg Porter and Ken Reeves)
are all sophomores,” he said. “So
we’ve got some players. We
don’t have a lot of them, but
we’ve got some. We have the
potential to start building a
team. The underclassmen should
be able to help us in the future.”
future.”
Some of the underclassmen
Sherrill cited as vital for f uture
success are Billy Cannon, Jerry
Bullitt, Keith Guthrie, John Kel-
len, Domingo Bryant and Ray
Childress.
“We’ve got to come up with
some defensive people secon-
See AGS page 12
Photos
by
Michel
Chang
Jackie Sherrill, (left) and a group of Texas
A&M fans (above) show their interest in the
outcome of Thursday’s annual clash between
Texas and Texas A&M. Sherrill saw his
team’s record close out at 5-6 with the
Aggies’ loss to the Longhorns 53-16.
Aggie punt returner Billy Cannon breaks through the
Texas defense in the second quarter of the Aggie-
Longhorn clash for a 57-yard romp that set up the
Aggies’ first score of the game. Texas defender Klint
Groves (30) tries in vain to catch the fleet-footed
Cannon.
Horns ‘spur’ Ags, 53-16
a somewhat more subdued look than
the fans that attended the game.
by John Wagner
Battalion Staff
Before the start of the 89th
annual Thanksgiving Day clash
between the Aggies and the
Longhorns, Texas A&M coach
Jackie Sherrill was presented
with a black cowboy hat and a
pair of silver spurs.
The gifts were given by the
University of Texas Spurs, Be-
vo’s official keepers, to welcome
Sherrill to UT’s Memorial
Stadium for the first time.
Some welcome.
The Silver Spurs’ intentions
may have been good, but the
Longhorn players had other
ideas, donning black hats of
their own and playing like the
bad guys all afternoon long.
The Longhorns’ 53-16 vic
tory in near-freezing, rain-soaked
Menyorial Stadium did little to
make Sherrill and the Aggies
feel at home. And despite the
gifts, one could easily get the
impression that the ’Horns felt
Austin just wasn’t big enough
for the two teams.
No problem, though. The
good guys were gone long be
fore sundown.
Before the Aggies could skip
town, however, the Sun Bowl-
bound Longhorns gave the
Cadets a lesson in steamrolling
— piling up 501 total yards of
offense and flattening any
Aggie hopes of a salvaged sea
son. Only an Aggie touchdown
pass with 47 seconds remaining
in the game kept this from being
the series’ worst rout since 1898.
The Aggies fell faster than
Bonfire — fumbling away the
ball after what appeared to be a
promising game-opening drive,
then giving up an 87-yard TD
pass from running back Darryl
Clark to flanker Herkie Walls on
the ’Horns first offensive play.
T hose two plays — the fum
ble and pass —set the tone for
the rest of the contest. The
Aggies never recovered and the
Longhorns never faltered.
At the end of the first quar
ter, Texas led 27-0 and had
amassed 220 yards in total
offense on only 18 plays. By the
end of the game the Horns had
scored in every manner possible
— touchdown, extra point, field
goal and safety, and convinced
the Aggies, as well as themselves,
that they were for real.
“After the SMU game,” Clark
said while standing on the side
line trying to keep warm, “We
really got mad at ourselves, be
cause we knew we could beat
them (Texas lost to the Mus
tangs 30-17). We just decided
then we were going to win the
rest of our games.”
Longhorn defensive end Kiki
DeAyala agreed.
“We’ve improved a lot as a
team since the SMU game,"
DeAyala said. “We just caught
A&M at a time when they were
down.
“And we’re playing with'a lot
of confidence right now. We re
not the kind of defense that
plays 1-2-3 (and make tile other
team) punt every time, but we
come up with the big plays and
we hang tough when we have
to," DeAvala said.
“If we keep playing good ball
and improving, hopefully we’ll
finish the season in the top 10.”
Most of the Longhorns a-
greed the pass play from Clark
to Walls helped permanently
douse the Aggies’ enthusiasm.
After Johnny Hector fumbled
the ball on the tail end of a 14-
yard run, the Longhorns
reached in their black hats and
pulled out the game-breaking
touchdown.
The play began as a standard
running play, with Texas’ quar
terback Robert Brewer pitching
the ball to Clark, who was sweep
ing around right end.
Clark brought the ball up
above his head and heaved it
downfield to the speeding Walls,
who made an over-the-shoulder
catch at the Aggies' 48-vard line.
The senior track man-turned
footballer then ran untouched
into the end zone for the Horns’
first score. Oijly 3:21 had ticked
off the clock wince the opening
kickoff.
Walls said t he plav was a natu
ral for the Longhorns' game
plan.
“I knew that play (the pass)
was going to work,” Walls said.
“A&M was just not prepared
for it. I had to wait on the pass a
See HORNS page 12